Albert Sacco

Albert Sacco Jr. (born May 3, 1949) is an American chemical engineer and former astronaut. He is best known for his role as a Payload Specialist on the Space Shuttle Columbia during Shuttle mission STS-73 in 1995. Sacco was born in Boston, Massachusetts, and obtained a B.S. degree in chemical engineering from Northeastern University in 1973, followed by a Ph.D. in chemical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1977. He joined the faculty of Worcester Polytechnic Institute, where he became a full professor and department head in 1989. Sacco later served as the Dean of the Edward E. Whitacre Jr. College of Engineering at Texas Tech University. He flew on STS-73 in 1995 and was originally selected for the ill-fated STS-107 mission.